Oliver in the middle in a grey t-shirt and Adam to his left in white. Around 1989, rocking' the Breakfast Club vibes.

Oliver's grandma and grandpa shortly after World War II.

Oliver

Creator of GLOBALL.

20:30 PST, 04/27/17, LAX, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, North America

As the creator of GLOBALL, I technically got the GLOBALL Rover first. The project has been a long time coming but I'm excited to get the Rover out into the world and see what happens. Below, I'll try and answer some of the questions I'll be asking all the people who receive the Rover. I call them GLOBALLers.

1. Tell us anything about yourself.

I've been an artist my whole life. I like to say that my work asks a question: "through which lens do we see the world"? It could be argued that we see much of the world these days through social media. If this is the case, then I wanted to add my take on that discussion. I feel that like paint or clay, connection is the medium of the 21st century. How do we connect and why? A need to answer these questions on my own terms is why I created GLOBALL.

2. Who are you giving the GLOBALL to and why?

I'm giving the GLOBALL Rover to one of my oldest friends, Adam. Adam and I went to high school together. He was a 5.0 student (all college courses, all A's) center of the football team and homecoming king. But he also wore a bowtie and practiced the yo-yo. He was an original. I always admired this about him and can say that he's probably one of the most unique people I've ever met in my life. It's been 30 years and we've kept in touch. After college he moved to San Fransisco, became a socially-minded film critic for Asian cinema and eventually married a lovely Japanese woman.

In 2017, he wrote a review for the film Good Luck Soup, which took place in the Cleveland area, where we grew up. The documentary was about a Japanese American refugee of the internment camps. He bookended it with stories about myself, a Japanese American hapa, who's grandmother had spent time in the Gila Internment Camp in Arizona (and who briefly appears in the film). The review was incredibly thoughtful and moving.

When I searched my life for who to give the GLOBALL Rover to, there were many wonderful, inspiring, necessary people but Adam's sensitivity to my personal struggles growing up in a small suburb in Ohio, were very poignant and still resonated with me after 30 years. I learned this year that Adam was moving to Japan to be with his wife and her family. It was perfect. I knew this was a meaningful opportunity to bring everything full circle. Having closure and resolution in life is so rare, I had to embrace the moment.

GLOBALL is about many things, but at it's heart is a need to create meaning. As Adam leaves on his new adventure, I want him to carry our bond as friends, the stories we created in each other's lives and the possibility we all share with our future.